12 months of pageviews

Here's an overview of total pageviews for the Strangelove for Science Fiction blog for each of the past 12 months.

2011 June -- 632

2011 May -- 552

2011 Apr -- 418

2011 Mar -- 514

2011 Feb -- 416

2011 Jan -- 339

2010 Dec -- 187

2010 Nov -- 268

2010 Oct -- 393

2010 Sept -- 437

2010 Aug -- 232

2010 July -- 394

These numbers are from the statistics built into Blogger.

2011 Hugo Nominations: Novella

The Hugo Award nominations deadline is upon us very soon (March 26). To my regret, the novella category is one that often gets short-changed by me.  I never seem to allow enough time to read that particular length of fiction. This year I’ve done better than usual and I’ve read what I hope are many of the best novellas. I was guided in my choices for what to read by the Locus Recommended Reading List and Year in Review essays in the February 2011 issue of Locus. I was guided, also, by the contents of the four year’s best science fiction anthologies edited by Jonathan Strahan, Gardner Dozois, Rich Horton, and David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer. I haven’t actually held any of these books, most of which haven’t been printed yet, but their tables of contents are available online.

First rank:
"The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand (Stories)
"Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" by Paul Park (F&SF)

These were the two best novellas from 2010 that I read. Both are brilliantly written, involving and mysterious.  Both stories concern secret histories, or hidden histories. "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" concerns members of the staff of the Museum of American Aviation and Aerospace, who gather after learning that a coworker is seriously ill, and, in an elegiac gesture, decide to test fly an early heavier-than-air craft. "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" is a meta-fictional history of the author’s own family, past, present, and future, reaching back to the Civil War and forward to a depopulated, exhausted future. Both stories are filled with wonderful images and unexpected turns. I am not sure which one will be at the top of my ballot.

Next rank:
“The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
"Dead Man's Run" by Robert Reed (F&SF)
"Troika" by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines)
"The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean)

These are fine, award-worthy novellas. I would be pleased to see any of these on the final ballot. My quandary is that one of them will have to be left off my list of nominees, since there are only five spots available.

Honorable mentions:
"The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov's)
“Seven Cities of Gold” by David Moles (PS Publishing)
“Alone” by Robert Reed (Godlike Machines)
“Blue and Gold” by K.J. Parker (Subterranean)

These were quite good, but won’t make my nominating ballot, alas. A good year for novellas, I think, and there were several more published in 2010 that I wish I had gotten to read in time for voting.

Related links:
Locus Recommended Reading list for 2010
Locus Year in Review issue, February 2011
Hugo Awards at the annual World Science Fiction Convention

SF Site Best Books of 2010: Reader’s Choice

SF Site has presented its annual Reader’s Choice for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2010:

1. Dervish House by Ian McDonald (UK: Gollancz; US: Pyr)
2. Kraken by China Miéville (UK: Macmillan; US: Del Rey)
3. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (UK: Harper Voyager; US: Roc)
4. Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks (UK and US: Orbit)
5. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (UK: Gollancz; US: forthcoming May 2011)
6. The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman (US: Tor)
7. Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (US: Spectra)
8. (tie) How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (US: Pantheon; UK: Corvus)
8. (tie) Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (US: Baen Books)
10. Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis (US: Tor)

The Rajaniemi, Yu, and Tregillis are all first novels. First novels made another strong showing recently when the 2011 Nebula short list was announced (see below). None of the first novels overlap between the two lists.

Overall it looks like a strong list. I’ve only read two of these so far: Dervish House and The Quantum Thief, which were both quite good. Time to get back to the to-be-read stack.

Related link: SF Site Reader’s Choice for the Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2010

Locus’ Year in Review for 2010

The Locus annual year in review issue is now out, featuring lists and commentary from reviewers, editors, and professionals in the science fiction community. To quote a few:

Gary K. Wolfe: “Connie Willis’s remarkable Blackout/All Clear is the apotheosis of a theme and setting that’s haunted Willis since the beginning of her career” and “Easily the most important first SF novel of the year was Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief.”

Jonathan Strahan: “My pick for SF novel of the year was Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House ... an incredible achievement” and “The best fantasy novel of the year, and my pick for novel of the year, was Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven.”

Graham Sleight: “The collection of the year for me was Karen Joy Fowler’s What I Didn’t See and Other Stories.”

The full Locus 2010 Recommended Reading List is available. As is a compilation of links to short fiction from the Locus list that are now available online.

Related links:
Locus’ Year in Review for 2009

Best SF books 2010 list mania

Locus’ Year in Review

Locus has published its 2009 Recommended Reading List, which it has to be said, is unmanageably large, especially the novelettes and short stories. It took a team of people to compile; it would take a team of people to read. Niall Harrison provides some interesting push back against the Locus reading list.

In addition to the list, Locus’ regular panel of reviewers and editors contribute year in review essays. Some list their top books of the year, some don’t. A few name what for them is the single standout book of the year.

Jonathan Strahan says of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: “Easily the most important first novel of the year and the best science fiction novel of the year.”

Paul Witcover: “If I had to pick a single standout to top the list, under duress I would point to China Mieville’s extraordinary The City & The City.”

Graham Sleight: “Near the top of anyone’s list would have to be Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl ... it was certainly the most challengingly radical book I read last year.”

Gary K. Wolfe calls China Mieville’s The City & The City, “One of the best and most important novels of last year.”

Jonathan Strahan’s Top Five Books of the Year:

• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Lifelode by Jo Walton
• Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The City & The City by China Mieville
• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Russel Letson’s Particularly Recommended:

• Conspirator by C.J. Cherryh
• Crystal Nights and Other Stories by Greg Egan
• Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
• The Sunless Countries by Karl Schroeder
• Wireless by Charles Stross
• Wild Thyme, Green Magic: Stories by Jack Vance, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Terry Dowling

Graham Sleight’s Best Books List:

• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Cloud & Ashes by Greer Gilman
• Liar by Justine Larbalestier
• Cheek by Jowl by Ursula K. LeGuin
• Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
• The City & The City by China Mieville
• Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
• Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
• In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield
• The Best of Gene Wolfe selected by Gene Wolfe

There is a lot to like in each of these lists and reason to get back to the “to be read” stack.

Links:
SF Strangelove’s review of The Windup Girl and The Windup Girl on the Rewind

Best Movies of 2009 sort of

My proviso is that there are several 2009 domestic movies I would still like to see and don’t get me started about how hard it is to find current foreign films.

Best Movies of the Year: The Hurt Locker and Bright Star (tie)

The Hurt Locker (directed by Kathryn Bigelow) -- If you are looking for a film about the Iraq War or Middle East issues, this is not that film. This is a movie about the psychology of soldiers under stress, focusing on three men in a bomb disposal unit. The amount of tension the story builds is remarkable. It’s a masterful character study that takes its time, peeling back one layer at a time.

Bright Star (directed by Jane Campion) -- (A brief SF Strangelove review). Pictured are Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne and Ben Wishaw as John Keats.

Also recommended: A Serious Man (directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen), Fantastic Mr. Fox (directed by Wes Anderson), Up in the Air (directed by Jason Reitman).

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie of the Year: Moon

Moon (directed by Duncan Jones) -- (A brief SF Strangelove review). Pictured is Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell.

Recommended with reservations:
Star Trek (directed by J.J. Abrams) -- Enjoyable if you can ignore the plot problems.
District 9 (directed by Neill Blomkamp) -- (A brief SF Strangelove review).
Avatar (directed by James Cameron) -- See it for its visuals. (A brief SF Strangelove review).

All four of these supposedly forward-looking science fiction films seem dated: Moon’s concern with cloning, Star Trek’s basis in 1960s television, District 9’s rewrite of Alien Nation (1988), and Avatar’s rewrite of Tarzan (1912).

Strange Horizons 2009 in Review

There’s a lot to like in the Strange Horizons’ overview of 2009: diverse voices citing a diverse group of science fiction related books and movies. Some of the books predate 2009, reflecting what reviewers read in 2009. Niall Harrison summarizes:

... the most popular fiction books in this year’s Strange Horizons best of the year round-up were, first, The City & The City by China Mieville, second, In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield, and third equal, Ark by Stephen Baxter and Cloud & Ashes by Greer Gilman.

Also receiving repeated mention: nonfiction On Joanna Russ edited by Farah Mendlesohn, young adult novel Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge, and feature film Moon.

I have some catching up to do, which I always say about this time of year.

The Strange Horizons overview makes an interesting comparison with Jeff VanderMeer’s Amazon Top Ten Science Fiction and Fantasy for 2009.

Top 10 posts from 2009

Below are the most popular entries, by pageviews, for the Strangelove for Science Fiction blog. The blog was started August 6, 2009.

1. Why Best Picture Oscars are like a Broken Clock -- 46
2. The Windup Girl -- 38
3. Toward Better Hugo Award Winners -- 34
4. Anathem -- 32
5. Early Influences -- 27
6. Year’s Best SF 14 -- 22
7. More on Mindfulness -- 21
8. Reno in 2011 -- 16
9. Martian Time-Slip -- 15
10. The Doctor is In -- 14

Having worked at a newspaper (over 100,000 daily circulation) and later having been in charge of several websites (over 100,000 pageviews per day) these blog numbers are thin. Even these numbers are suspect, since it appears that Google Analytics includes the blog owner's pageviews. It filters out numerous web crawlers, which is helpful. Still, it may be an interesting measuring stick for future years, so I offer it here. I invite readers of this blog to join in the discussion by posting comments.